Cowlitz Co. infant with meningitis dies

Health officials say a Cowlitz County infant diagnosed with bacterial meningitis has died in a Portland hospital.

Cowlitz County health officer Dr. Alan Melnick tells the Longview Daily News that the baby developed a fever last week and was eventually taken to Doernbecker Children's Hospital, where she died.

He says the infant's type of meningitis is not contagious. He says only people who had close contact with the child and her body fluids are vulnerable to infection. The child was not in day care, so only family members who were exposed were notified and given antibiotics.

Melnick declined to release details of the case, include her age and hometown, citing privacy.

Bacterial meningitis is a form of meningococcal meningitis, which infects the lining of the brain and spinal cord.